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Courtesy Living on earth/Male Broad
throated Hummingbird visiting Colorado Flowers
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Native pollinators are those species that are native to a specific region. To the Native Pollinators in
Agriculture Project, that region is North America. The Leafcutter bees, Digger Bees,
Acute-Tongued Burrowing Bees Sweat Bees and more than up to 24 species of bumble
bees are a few of the native Pollinators in Colorado.
Pollinators
include bees, insects, birds, and other animals that move pollen from one
flower to another, thereby fertilizing plants and allowing them to reproduce. The Leafcutter bee and numerous bumble bees
are examples of native pollinators. Native, or “wild”, bees are distinct from
managed bees, which were introduced to North America and are kept today by
beekeepers in the United States for their honey, beeswax, and pollination services.
The European honey bee is the primary managed pollinator in the U.S. today.
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| Courtesy of agpollinators.org/Bumble bee on sunflower |
Though
bees are the most common group of pollinators, other insects and animals,
including wasps, butterflies, flies, beetles, bats, hummingbirds, and even man
are significant pollinators as well.
There are 946 species of native bees, 250 species of butterflies, 1000
species of moths, 4 common species of migrating Hummingbirds, and numerous,
wasps, beetles, flies and bats in Colorado.
Native
pollinators also play a critical role in the production of certain fruits,
vegetables, and forage crops. Native bees and numerous bumble bees are
significant pollinators, and on a bee-per-bee basis, can be more effective than
honey bees.
Pollinators may be our planet's most ecologically and
economically important group of animals. They provide stability for every
terrestrial ecosystem in the world, because wild flowering plants depend on
these native bees, flies, butterflies, beetles, moths, bats, birds and other
animals to reproduce. Other wildlife then eat the fruits and seeds that result
from pollination, spreading the seeds that in turn give rise to future
generations of plants. Most of the world's other wildlife (including insects) —
and more than 250,000 wild flowering plants — need native pollinators to exist.
And of course that's not counting us humans.
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Courtesy of Tagawa Gardens/Denver
Attract bees and butterflies with
perennials at Tagawa
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Significant portions of the world's human food
supply rely on the health of native pollinator populations — particularly those
of bees, one of the main groups of pollinators. But despite pollinators' vast
importance, amazing diversity and frightening imperilment, these special
creatures are often overlooked and misunderstood. Many people simply don't
comprehend or appreciate the complex ecology of wild plant reproduction.
And
perhaps most importantly, we don't sufficiently value native pollinators, whose health
is imperative to the health of every natural ecosystem on every continent. It is of the utmost importance that we do
whatever we can to save our native pollinator population
References:
CSU
Fact Sheets
Agpollinators.org/native
pollinators in agriculture
Center
for Biological diversity/native pollinators